Hiking and Geocaching

Sunday afternoon I took Emma for what seem to be turning into an annual event – a hike at Big Sugar Creek State Park. This year, however Emma was able to complete the full 3.8 mile loop on her own, where in previous years we did a shortened out and back version.

Although this park’s claim to fame is the natural “Oak Savannah” ecosystem that once dominated the area, most of the park appears to be pretty heavily forested to me. Even though it’s mid-October, very few fall colors were observed in this park, which typically puts on a vibrant display with it’s many oak, hickory, and sugar maples.

Emma loves hiking along and over rocks, so naturally she opted to take the detour through the mostly dry stream bed for much of the second half of the trail.

This part of the trail definitely looked more like what I would expect an Oak Savannah to look like. The Sumac is about the only thing showing much fall color.

While on our hike, Emma and I found a geocache (aka ‘treasure box’). It was her first, and the first one I had found in close to 7 years! Here you can see her signing the log book, which had entries dating back to 2005.